I think Night is wonderful and Dawn has an interesting discussion on terrorism, but there wasn't a whole lot in Day that hit me hard. It seemed a lot more meandering and less focused than the previous two books.

It almost feels like a cross between a novel and nonfiction. It's very clearly not nonfiction, but Wiesel seems to be taking a lot from his life. Not only do they share a past, but Wiesel himself was in a car accident, the same as the narrator. He says the suicide aspect was fiction, but that's not really something I'd speculate about either way. In general, it came across as kind of fanfiction for real life, twisted just enough to turn it into a compelling story, but largely his own story. And it didn't really work for me.

There were moments in this that were incredibly worthwhile, but they did boil down to just moments, single lines that felt powerful, where Night and Dawn were both powerful as a whole. One line that stuck out to me (I can't quote because I didn't save the page) was when he said it's impossible to write a novel about Auschwitz- if it's about Auschwitz, then it's not fiction. If it's fiction, then it's not about Auschwitz. There were loads of moments like that throughout this book that hit me hard, but moments don't make a whole book for me.

The second page had a scene that made me super uncomfortable, when the girlfriend gets catcalled by sailors and is made uncomfortable by it. The main character says she should be flattered and that sailors see women with their mouths, not their eyes. Obviously not something that ruined the book, but that scene just seemed so gross and unnecessary. It was such a bad way to begin the book.

Just in general, I didn't love this one the way I did the first two. It took me five days to read and that's a lot for a book that's just barely over a hundred pages. I don't think this trilogy really needed to be marketed as such. They're tied together in that they're three characters who were in concentration camps during the Holocaust and have some similar themes, but nothing else. I would highly recommend reading the first two, and you might as well pick up this one if you enjoyed those. I still feel like it was worth a read, even if there wasn't a lot in it that I found particularly compelling.

I first read this book at 16 and absolutely adored it. It was one of my favorite books at the time. I just reread it, a decade later, and while I don't think it's quite as amazing as I did as a teen, I still found a lot to enjoy in it.

To start with, this is a painfully slow read. It took me two weeks to get through and normally I can get through books in 2-3. Two weeks is kind of an absurd length of time, but I love how slow it is. It definitely drags as it covers the family history two generations back from the main character, but I like that. It covers every single detail, unnecessary or not, and makes it part of the story. It definitely picks up a lot more once it focuses solely on the main character Cal, but I don't think that necessarily makes it better. I like both equally, even if the first 300 pages took me 10 days and the last 200 pages took me three.

As a teen, I think Cal's time as a teen feeling out of place and different meant a lot to me. There are a lot of books that do that, but something in Cal's character and the graphic way it was discussed made me relate more to it. I think I really appreciated having an adult Cal looking back on their youth seriously, and accepting that those differences were important at the time and still important in their present. It felt validating.

As an adult, I really appreciate the depth Cal's character has. He's just an incredibly well developed character with a lot of nuance. I don't often like the story within a story trope, but I like the way Cal told his family's story. I think it actually contributed to the book in a way that just the story existing on its own wouldn't have. Cal is telling this story from the future as an adult, interspersed with moments from his current life.

I do wish there had been more time with Cal's specific story. We spend a lot with his parents and grandparents, but then it speeds up when it's Cal's turn. I would have like more of both his youth and his adulthood. The romance he experiences in his present day narration only shows up occasionally and I definitely think it could have been more developed.

The intersex representation is something that does concern me in this book, but as someone who isn't intersex, I don't really have anything to say on it except I don't know. I wasn't able to find and thorough own voices discussions of it, but I did find out that Eugenides didn't speak with any intersex people before writing this book (he preferred medical professionals and experts). He also uses the term "hermaphrodite" which is an offensive and inaccurate word today, although I'm not sure if it was largely considered so at the time (this book being almost 20 years old). I'm pretty much left with 'I don't know' and I think it is something to consider/research further when reading this book.

I still really enjoy this book. I think it's one I'll definitely reread in the future as well. I love the way the story is crafted and I enjoy the prose, pretentious as it may be. I don't think this is a book for everyone, but it sucks me in so thoroughly to the story that I can't help but love it.

I reread this via audiobook. This was a favorite Sarah Dessen novel for me when I was in high school. I expected this to be 4 stars, but was disappointed. Honestly, I think the narrator had a lot to do with that. I wasn't a fan of her delivery or voices for some of the characters. I'd be interested to see if my rating would change if I were to instead reread the physical book, which I may do in a few years.

It was still an enjoyable read, though. I liked the romance, although there honestly wasn't a whole lot of it. I really liked Ruby's relationship with her sister. I like Ruby herself as a main character, and all her flaws. I was invested through to the end, although it did feel like it went on for a little too long.

I found myself wishing there was more discussion on class. It felt like this book called for more of that, but it was mostly discussed around it or glossed over. Ruby doesn't like to spend loads of money on clothes, but now her sister wants her to and can afford it, so there's a little conflict. But it never felt like it was enough.

Overall, it was a fun contemporary YA. I really liked it and just in general really like Dessen. I do think a physical read would have been a better experience for me, though.

This is one of those books that is exactly its description and I feel like you know going in if this will be for you or not. It's a collection of 12 articles Krakauer wrote about mountain climbing (or related topics) in the 80s. I like journalism and I like Krakauer's writing style, so I quite enjoyed this book.

I will admit that mountain climbing is not a particular interest of mine, but I have already read Into Thin Air which piqued my curiosity in the topic. If you're a bit hesitant because of the mountain climbing, I definitely recommend getting through Into Thin Air first. It helps to read this as a follow up, even though it was published nearly a decade earlier.

I don't think this book has a whole lot of staying power for me. I read it over the course of a month (which is normally how I get through collections) and the articles themselves faded pretty fast from my mind. The only ones I can strongly remember details from were the last, about Krakauer's personal experience soloing a peak in Alaska, and my least favorite about being stuck in your tent for days/weeks during bad weather. Everything else started blurring together as soon as I finished each individual piece.

I don't have a whole lot to say about this book. I really enjoyed it while reading it. Krakauer's writing is great and the topics were varied and interesting, mostly. Even when they weren't, one of the great things about journalism collections is that the pieces aren't ever much more than 20 pages so you move on pretty fast. It was great to have a little taste of different people and events and histories of mountain climbing.

I'd definitely recommend if it sounds like your kind of thing. It was a very worthwhile read and he has another book that I believe is similar in nature (Classic Krakauer) that I plan on reading soon.

This was one of my favorite books as a child. I read it from the library so many times that my parents went ahead and just bought me a copy so I'd stop asking them to drive me there specifically for this book.

Elizabeth is a foster kid who's been placed with a new family. She agreed because they go to the ocean every summer and seeing the ocean has been a lifelong dream. But she's the opposite of them in every way- they're loud and boisterous and outgoing while she's quiet, reserved, and self contained. I love the dynamic between her and the family. It does a great job of showing negatives and positives on both sides. Sure Elizabeth is understandably struggling, but it's also hard for a ten year old who doesn't understand why her new cousin never talks or plays with her in the whole month they're rooming together. I think this book did a good job of illustrating both points of view, although focusing on Elizabeth for obvious reasons.

I think Elizabeth's character is really well developed. She's someone I found myself relating to as both a child and adult. Her specific situation is very unique, but in general, the feeling of otherness is something most people feel at some point. I think it was handled really well and I love her character. I can't help but feel for her and wish for things to improve throughout this book.

The regular narration is interrupted at points with italic lines that are Elizabeth's direct thoughts and I loved those. I thought the way they were interspersed through the book was so well done. It made me feel that much more connected to Elizabeth.

The biggest issue for me in this book is the spanking. The grandmother punishes them (children aged 4-15) by spanking them with a paddle. It's mentioned that a few of the parents think it's barbaric, but no one does anything to try and stop it. Everyone just kind of goes along and within the context of the book, it's a positive thing. I definitely have a problem with that and anyone who owns a paddle specifically for hitting children. I'm willing to look past it in part because it's a childhood favorite. There's so much nostalgia that I already loved the rest of the book, and the spanking was just one bad thing to be accepted. I think if I was reading it for the first time it would have affected my overall enjoyment a lot more.

I was also not the biggest fan of the ending. It felt like we had a whole summer of Elizabeth not fitting in and not trying to fit in, because she knew she was leaving, but then everything changed drastically and quickly in a couple days at the end. I know a climax has to be dramatic, but I think it needed a lot more time to develop. I feel like it cheapened the story a little by trying to completely fix everything at the end when it could've just started the process

I think a lot of the adults in the story needed to be more open with Elizabeth and understanding of her situation. I'm not sure if this is a critique of the story or just something I didn't like in these characters. It makes sense that kids are going to get frustrated by someone who always pushes them away. But I think the adults needed to do a much better job. Elizabeth is told she's part of the family, but her history in foster care has taught her that these placements are temporary. None of the adults really try hard to dispel this notion or work with her through it. Also leaving a foster kid who clearly has abandonment issues in the care of a new adult in a new place for a whole month when she's only been with you for two months seems like a really bad idea. I dunno, like I said, I'm not sure if this is a critique of the book or just the characters as people, but I wish it had been handled better.

Overall, this is a favorite of mine and will probably always be a favorite. I love reading about Elizabeth and would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys middle grade contemporaries.

I was not the biggest fan of Mrs Dalloway when I read it earlier this fall, but this book surprised me a bit. It took a lot of the themes I enjoyed from Woolf and turned them around and explored them in different ways. I found it very fascinating and enjoyable to read, although I still only gave it a three star rating.

Despite being interested, I found it hard to connect to this book. I was interested without being invested, and I never felt like I cared as much as I needed to. I only ever found myself caring about Laura, the housewife from the 40s. Her story drew me in and I wish there had been more. I didn't dislike Clarissa or Virginia Woolf's chapters, but I just didn't care.

I think I needed a bit more from all the storylines. None of them felt complete or like they had enough time to accomplish their goals. It's a fairly short book anyway, about 230 pages, but split between three different narrators, that only left about 70 pages for each and a chapter at the end to wrap it all up. It didn't feel like enough.

I found it to be overwritten and a little too pretentious. I liked the themes and story, but overall wasn't a huge fan of his writing style. I think that encouraged a lot of the disconnect I was feeling.

Overall, I did enjoy it more than Mrs. Dalloway, but I still didn't love it. However I am glad I picked it up and I really did enjoy the exploration of a number of themes from the original.

I want to say right off the bat that I did really enjoy this book and would recommend it. I was torn between three and four stars, but I think there were enough issues in the story and writing that kept it down at three.

I really enjoyed the main character. I thought Ben was really well developed and I was invested in their life, which is always half the battle in a book. I also loved the slow burn romance. It was killing me by the end because Ben and Nathan were so obviously into each other and the only ones who didn't see it. I love when a romance takes me on a ride like that and makes me care.

I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style, though. There's a specific kind of inner character dialogue that feels like their direct thoughts rather than the regular narration that's always jarring to me. It happens a lot in first person present tense, like this book is. There's nothing inherently wrong with that style, it's just not something I ever enjoy.

This book was also heavy on dialogue. There were a lot of sections that felt like constant dialogue for almost a whole page or so. I definitely prefer a higher ratio of narration to dialogue and this book just overall wasn't written in my style.

One thing I don't particularly think was handled well were all the relationships. Ben and Nathan's relationship was great, obviously, but it felt like some of the more minor relationships weren't developed as much as they needed to be or as much as was implied in the story. I think this was particularly obvious when it came to Ben's relationship with their art teacher. The first time they met, the art teacher said they knew Ben was special and gave them a key to the art room. When they finally said goodbye, the art teacher was crying and saying how great of a student Ben was and how attached she was to them. But it wasn't ever something I saw or felt in the story. Their relationship was never actually developed. We were told they had a meaningful relationship, but we didn't see it.

And I felt similarly about the parents. Ben is kicked out their parents' house early in the book and spends the rest of the book grappling with their feelings, whether they love them or hate them or could ever be in a relationship with them again. But by the time they came to a decision, it felt too easy. I've read books about toxic/abusive parents before and I don't believe that parents belong in your life just because they're your parents, but I don't think it was well enough developed here, so I didn't fully buy into Ben's thoughts on them. It felt a little too easy and too surface level.

But overall, this was a good book and I'm so glad I read it. Not every worthwhile book has to be fantastic or a new favorite. Would recommend for the slow burn romance alone, but I also want to note that I loved the nonbinary rep, although as a cis person I don't really think it's my place to discuss that aspect.

To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting all that much from this book. I picked it up anyway because I was in need of an audiobook and I thought it might be interesting to hear about Sue Klebold's experiences as the mother of someone known for committing a mass shooting.

However, the longer I listened to this book, the more irritated I became by it. I don't really blame Klebold herself (for either the shooting or my irritation while reading this book), though. The majority of this book felt like she was explaining every single influence that led Dylan to the shooting- Eric's toxic relationship, mental health, guns, violent videogames and movies, bullies, etc. It was a very long list. And I didn't care. I would have been incredibly irritated by this book had it been written by anyone else, but honestly, I just can't bring myself to be irritated at her. I can't imagine how hard it is for her to live with her son's actions and of course she's grasping at straws to find any kind of reason. That's understandable. I'd probably feel the same way in her position. But it didn't make this book any more enjoyable to read.

A lot of what she was discussion, like the violent media influences and bullying, are mostly debunked today. I'd have been more forgiving if this book was from 2003 or something when videogames cause violence was a commonly held belief, but it came out in 2016. I had the misfortune of listening to her discussion on videogames with my boyfriend (who was literally playing a first person shooter during that hour) and had to keep pausing it for his rants and citing of studies that have actually suggested the opposite, that players of videogames are more empathetic. In 2019 (or 2020, as I'm writing this review) it's hard to take the "videogames cause violence" discussion seriously. And I briefly mentioned bullying, but I know there are a lot of questions over whether Dylan and Eric were bullied, were the bullies, or both. Sue Klebold went with both and I'm not sure I agree based on what I've read, but I dunno, I'd believe the same thing if it was my kid. Can't be mad at her for that.

As someone with a "brain health issue" (as she repeatedly called it, I much prefer the term mental health), I was quite irritated with how much of the book she spent discussing that as a reason why Dylan was the way he was. I've been diagnosed with clinical depression and have struggled with it since childhood and I hate the narrative around mental health and mass shooters. Klebold points out that most people with mental health issues would never commit violence, but a small percentage do so it's important to talk about. But like, that's true of the percentage of the population without mental illness too. Most people without mental illness would never commit violence, but a small percentage do. So I guess by similar logic, we should treat not having a mental illness as a risk factor for violence as well?

What I enjoyed about this book was her actual experiences. I didn't go in expecting to enjoy her insights, but I did actually quite like reading about what she and her family went through. I thought that was where this book actually added something to the Columbine discussion. I think it can be important and insightful to hear from the families affected and what they went through. Sue Klebold has a unique perspective in how she experienced the Columbine shooting and I appreciate her sharing it.

Beyond that, there were small things that irritated me. She talked about how she used to think suicide was the coward's way out and people with mental illnesses were weak. I get that it's important for people who used to hold crappy viewpoints like that to speak out so that others will change to, but it always irritates me when people only change because it personally affects them. Other people's suffering doesn't make a difference, only their own.

She also seemed incredibly naive. I don't just say that because she missed the fact that her son was planning mass murder under her roof, but because of everything else. She talked about what a good kid he was, after he'd been arrested for a felony, after he was suspended from school for hacking their computer system, after keying someone's locker and trying to start a "rumble" and getting called into guidance for writing disturbing stories. If I'd done half of that in high school, my parents would have had me in therapy faster than anything. Sue Klebold takes more of a "boys will be boys" approach, saying how hacking the school's computer system and sharing personal information is no different than sneaking into the girl's bathroom or that it's ridiculous the school fined him so much for destroying property.

She also talked at length about how she didn't believe kids could hide serious things like rape and suicidal thoughts from their parents. I don't understand how any adult can think that. We were all teenagers. We all hid things or knew people who hid things of varying severity from parents. It just strikes me as incredibly naive and irresponsible to believe that. She obviously doesn't believe that anymore, but at the time she held that belief, she had one adult son who had already graduated high school and one who was about to.

I wouldn't really recommend this book. There were some interesting stories of what she went through during and after the massacre that I appreciated, but overall a lot of it was just explaining everything that she believed influenced Dylan into committing the shooting. If you're really interested in Columbine and have already read a few other books, sure pick this one up, but just in general, I didn't think it was worthwhile.

I feel like this book magnified every problem I had with The Night Circus and missed on a lot of what made that book beautiful.

I never felt like Morgenstern captured what The Starless Sea (or any of the magic or whatever else) was. When I finished The Night Circus, I knew that circus. It was a living, breathing part of the story. In many ways, the circus was the main character. The Starless Sea wasn't. Having something so specific and real like a circus as the focal point of the story grounded it. The Starless Sea lacked that. I don't really know what it was or how to talk about it without spoilers. It was just like a bunch of bees or something. Like literally I don't know, that's the feeling I came away from the book with. It was all just a bunch of bees.

And it wasn't just that it was confusing, but by the halfway point I didn't care. I wasn't trying to understand anymore because I was so disinterested in the story and the characters. I was just reading to get to the end and I felt so unsatisfied by this story.

One specific thing I really didn't like was the romance between Zachary and Dorian (whose name isn't even Dorian, but whatever it doesn't matter and neither does just about anything else). They're talked up to be some great love story, they both fall in love with each other over the book, and they're treated as the main couple. But they don't spend much time together. Dorian is unconscious for the first half the story and then leaves for the second half. I heard another person say the relationship didn't feel earned and that was on hundred percent how I felt. I never bought their romance as real because they never had the chance to grow their feelings together.

In general, I wasn't a fan of any of the characters. They all had that superficial quirky vibe that seems to have been very popular the last ten years. They're all so quirky and relatable and funny! But also pretty normal and only weird because they're shy and knit Harry Potter scarves and bake. I think characters like that can be done really well, but it felt like all their personalities came from their so-called quirkiness, even the characters for whom that was not fitting in the slightest. I didn't like her characters in The Night Circus either, but at least in that I felt like they worked in the story overall. In this, they felt like they overpowered the story.

I could go on about other details and things that seemed poorly done, but mostly I just didn't care. I was never once invested in this story. I didn't care where it was going, and then when it got there I was mostly just relieved that it was over. Which sounds incredibly negative for a three star rating, but I didn't dislike it. There was nothing I felt truly irritated by in this book. It was just weird and meandering and pointless with flat characters and a kind of pretty writing style. I'd almost rather have hated it because then at least I'd care.

I think this has been so far my least favorite of Karin Slaughters books- which doesn't mean I hate it by any means. Karin Slaughter at her worst is still better than many other thriller authors. But I was a bit disappointed by this. I suppose every author with a vast collection of works has to have a few misses.

What I liked about this book is basically the same for every other Slaughter. She's a fantastic writer. She has a great way of telling a story. Even though I didn't care about the characters or the plot, her storytelling was enough to push me forward and keep me interested. I think another author and this book may have irritated me quite a bit, but for all the flaws, I still adore her writing.

But that was about it in terms of positives. I didn't like any of the characters. Slaughter often walks a line of unlikable characters and sometimes it works for me, but here I just couldn't bring myself to care about Andy or Jane. The only character I was invested in died after their first chapter. I found both Jane and Andy to be annoying and passive. They dragged the story down more than they pushed it along, and spent half of the book crying. I think sometimes those types of characters can work very well, but not here.

I also found it annoying that a lot of the story had already happened. Not in terms of the two timelines, but it felt like the characters spent a great deal of time talking about things rather than doing the things. Instead of showing us a scary chase scene, we got told about it after the fact, sometimes from a different character altogether. It made it difficult for me to get invested.

This plot also tends a little more toward action than it does thriller. I love getting inside people's heads when they're afraid and faced with impossible decisions, which is why I love thrillers. They take ordinary people and destroy them. But this book didn't have a whole lot of intense psychological aspects. It felt like it should have- there was a cult, and a mother with secrets, and murder- but I never felt like the book got intense. It sort of just plodded along.

One specific thing that really irritated me was how everyone acted like a murder that happened in self defense that literally no jury would ever convict, was going to send people to prison forever. It made no sense and it was the whole premise of the book. Major spoiler:

Spoiler

Andy hits a dude with a frying pan while he's torturing her mother and then acts like it's literally first degree murder and the cops will lock her up forever. It clearly wasn't premeditated (hence the hastily grabbed frying pan) and her mother showed physical signs of a beating. Since Andy works with the cops, she should have known better than to run.

It was irritating to me that whole story was balanced on these illogical fears when it was so blatantly obvious.

But it was still a fine book. Disappointing if I look at Karin Slaughter's overall work, but pretty average for a thriller for me. I look forward to finishing off the rest of her books because I hear the best is still to come. If this is the worst she has to offer, then she's more than solidified herself as my favorite thriller author.